Sustainable Seafood

I received this note in my comment box in response to the yummy crab entry last summer. We need to do our part in helping maintain a sustainable seafood industry.

Hello, I am the fisherman that supplies Andrew's (Evening Cove) crabs.
I am a small footprint local harvester and marketer. More and more of us are realizing for seemingly obvious reasons that this is the trend for primary food production. I harvest within 30 km and sell from Nanaimo to Campbell River. Well, DFO without any science, policy or vision is threatening to basically eliminate commercial crabbing from Victoria to Campbell River from March 15- Sept. 15. This is the viable portion of the year; the crab are abundant, the local market is in full swing and the weather is safe for the small boats that can do this viably without a lot of fuel.
I am looking for public support for sustainable seafood harvesting in our communities before it is all gone and we look back at how stupid we were. I have my dock customers and Thriftys Foods as well as the David Suzuki Foundation any many others coming onboard to help. If you like to help me encourage DFO to support responsible seafood harvesting please call Kim at:
(250)618-0128.
Cheers!

Falling in love in Bozeman

After Devil's Tower, we headed up to Bozeman, Montana and proceed to fall madly in love with this town's land and people.
It's gorgeous valley ringed with great mountains and filled with the nicest people.

It also has some great ice!
This is a gorgeous weep of ice in the Hyalite Canyon, the central hub of ice-climbing in Southern Montana.
Beyond the incredible climbing, this town is so 100 Mile Diet friendly.
A few blocks from our motel was their Community Food Co-op, a delicious treasure!
They not only have a great selection of fresh, local produce, they also had a great hot and cold deli, a bakery and a coffee shop. The prices are comparable, if not lower than grocery store prices.
They proudly advertise the local farms that source their products and the employees are knowledgeable and passionate about food but not at the expense of the enviroment,
Our motel didn't have a fridge or any cooking devices so I picked up a small kettle/hot pot. Every day, we'd make a trip down to the Co-op and pick up our food for that day.

For dinners, I picked up a bunch of local winter veggies, organic kamut salad, some asian roasted chicken and marinated tofu from the deli and bring it all back to the motel for some on the road cooking.
The kettle/hot pot allows me a range of heat from simmer to boil for an extended period of time, making it perfect for soups, steaming veggies, boiling noodles and even eggs. Together, we lived off of $10 a day for groceries, including some really yummy vegan chocolate cake:)

Ta-dah! Dinner a la motel room.














And to top it off, they make a really nice baguette with local, organic flour! Yippee!!













We also discovered this great Mexican restaurant called La Tinga that makes their own corn tortillas, salsas and the best chicken and green salsa taco I have ever had. On our last day there, we went the La Tinga and proceed to pretty much eat through the whole menu.
Here's their breakfast tortilla. This helped fuel those brisk, ice-climbing days.
We loved it all so much that I picked up a dozen tortillas and a couple containers of salsa for the road.
Thanks Bozeman for such a wonderful week! We'll be back soon!

On the road

For the last couple of weeks I've been in the Rockies feeding my soul.
(Lake Louise, Alberta).








I've been romping on some ice...














Hanging out with the locals...














We started out in Waterton Lakes outside of Lethbridge. There the ice was gorgeous. The village around the lakes was mostly closed for the winter except for a few lodges.














The Kilmorey Lodge was opened and they have some yummy local foods and even sell their own Saskatoon Berry jam that they gather from the park and make right on premises!














We then went north up the Lake Louise on the next leg of our Rockies adventure. Since we were staying at the hostel and the last time I checked, there wasn't much for local farming in the Rockies , I had packed a huge cooler bag of veggies and fruit from home. It's a great way to minimize my food footprint and keep my costs down.
On our way to Lake Louise, I also found out that Calgary has a year-round farmer's market. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore and we weren't there on the right day. Oh well, maybe next time.
After Lake Louise, we headed down to Wyoming for Devil's Tower. This climb has been on our and most other climber's list of climbs we most want to do. It's a powerful and beautiful place.
As we traveled through Montana and into Wyoming, all I saw were huge grasslands peppered with cows grazing happily, roaming free and being cows. I even saw the odd herd of buffalo. I couldn't wait to get a taste of the region's meat.
Most of the businesses and campgrounds around Devil's Tower is closed this time of year. Fortunately for us, the folks as Tower View Restaurant and Campgrounds were opened. The new owners, the Cages, just bought the place last September and are planning to expand the campground, RV park and even cabins. They are a few minutes outside the park and were happy to rent us a car camping spot for a few nights. That was a huge help since the nearest winter campground was over 20 miles away. They also have free wifi. I've been working online during this road trip so have internet access has been a determining factor about where we stay. So far we haven't had too much trouble finding at least a library or a coffee shop with wifi. We've even found gas stations and laundromats with it!
Linda, Larry, Patty and Billy Cage are the warmest and nicest folks and made our stay in Devils Tower that much more special.
To top it off, they make a mean buffalo burger!

Do you see those chips? Those were made right on the premises and are the best chips I've ever had.
This is good, honest home-cooking with no frills, bells or whistle, just good food. Linda does all the baking from scratch. We enjoyed homemade muffins and pies and huge breakfasts. They're getting ready for their first season at Devil's Tower and I hope them all the best.
The folks at Tower View were the epitome of great hospitality and we're looking forward to visiting them again.